Nepal's quiet revolution unfolds.
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kathmandu
Distraught Nepalis thronged the streets in grief. As the royal cremation pyres smoked, the reverence for the monarchy crumbled. Suspicions worsened for the new king, Birendra's brother Gyanendra, most Nepalis suspected that he and his son, Paras, had planned the killings.After all, Paras and his mother survived the shooting spree, while Gyanendra was out of town. Paras was already loathed. The playboy prince is widely believed to have run down and killed at least two people in drink-driving incidents. Already unpopular, Gyanendra made matters worse by taking on political powers, culminating in a disastrous spell of absolute power in 2005 in which he failed to crush the Maoist rebels and locked up dissenters.
Just as the monarchy was perhaps irrelevant to most Nepalis, getting rid of it will not cure the country's ills.
On Thursday morning, though, the palace staff - their future in doubt of course - quietly lowered the royal standard that used to flutter outside.
What most want above all is peace - which is still not properly in place after the Maoist insurgency. And their next bowl of rice.
They would like justice after years of dismal human rights violations. They would like an end to caste discrimination and corruption.
Those are the counts on which they will judge their new rulers - likely to be the Maoists, who have now entered politics.
Back at the unlovely 1970s royal palace, stray dogs were resting against the gates.
Through the railings could be seen soldiers, checking their text messages in the gardens which may soon be turned into a public park.
There was little on the surface to suggest a quiet revolution was happening.
But late that evening, the staff who had lowered the royal standard in the morning, raised the national flag in its place.
The palace building is no longer the domain of a king, and Nepal is no longer a kingdom.
Life is forever changing.
There is always hope.
Let us all begin a new month, season and way of life then...
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kathmandu
Popular opinion turned against the monarchy before its abolition.
Against a yellow-pink sunset sky, the ageing prime minister arrived, waved briefly and walked in so quickly, the band did not even get a chance to play Nepal's new, non-royalist national anthem.
By this time the new assembly members, nearly 600 of them, had been waiting inside all day.
Many are new to politics, one-third are women, and many wore the traditional clothes of their ethnic groups, in a country which until recently stressed uniformity. To this group of men and women fell the task of declaring Nepal a republic.
Towards midnight, they finally did so, voting out the monarchy by an overwhelming 560 votes to four. The crowd in the street roared their approval.
"Vive La Republique!" shouted one banner headline the next morning. The monarchy, the papers said, had been a discredited dynasty that had looted the country and made it one of the world's poorest.
So ends a monarchy which had its roots in a hilltop fortress called Gorkha, the word now used for Nepalese recruits to the British army.
Gyanendra became increasingly unpopular after becoming king.
People liked the fact that his father, the former king, Birendra, would tramp the countryside incognito, asking about people's concerns.
But all that affection was shattered in the 2001 palace massacre.
By this time the new assembly members, nearly 600 of them, had been waiting inside all day.
Many are new to politics, one-third are women, and many wore the traditional clothes of their ethnic groups, in a country which until recently stressed uniformity. To this group of men and women fell the task of declaring Nepal a republic.
Towards midnight, they finally did so, voting out the monarchy by an overwhelming 560 votes to four. The crowd in the street roared their approval.
"Vive La Republique!" shouted one banner headline the next morning. The monarchy, the papers said, had been a discredited dynasty that had looted the country and made it one of the world's poorest.
So ends a monarchy which had its roots in a hilltop fortress called Gorkha, the word now used for Nepalese recruits to the British army.
Gyanendra became increasingly unpopular after becoming king.
People liked the fact that his father, the former king, Birendra, would tramp the countryside incognito, asking about people's concerns.
But all that affection was shattered in the 2001 palace massacre.
According to all the evidence, Dipendra, furious at his mother's veto on his choice of bride, gunned down his family and five relatives before allegedly killing himself.
Distraught Nepalis thronged the streets in grief. As the royal cremation pyres smoked, the reverence for the monarchy crumbled. Suspicions worsened for the new king, Birendra's brother Gyanendra, most Nepalis suspected that he and his son, Paras, had planned the killings.After all, Paras and his mother survived the shooting spree, while Gyanendra was out of town. Paras was already loathed. The playboy prince is widely believed to have run down and killed at least two people in drink-driving incidents. Already unpopular, Gyanendra made matters worse by taking on political powers, culminating in a disastrous spell of absolute power in 2005 in which he failed to crush the Maoist rebels and locked up dissenters.
Just as the monarchy was perhaps irrelevant to most Nepalis, getting rid of it will not cure the country's ills.
On Thursday morning, though, the palace staff - their future in doubt of course - quietly lowered the royal standard that used to flutter outside.
What most want above all is peace - which is still not properly in place after the Maoist insurgency. And their next bowl of rice.
They would like justice after years of dismal human rights violations. They would like an end to caste discrimination and corruption.
Those are the counts on which they will judge their new rulers - likely to be the Maoists, who have now entered politics.
Back at the unlovely 1970s royal palace, stray dogs were resting against the gates.
Through the railings could be seen soldiers, checking their text messages in the gardens which may soon be turned into a public park.
There was little on the surface to suggest a quiet revolution was happening.
But late that evening, the staff who had lowered the royal standard in the morning, raised the national flag in its place.
The palace building is no longer the domain of a king, and Nepal is no longer a kingdom.
Life is forever changing.
There is always hope.
Let us all begin a new month, season and way of life then...
2 comments:
How sad! How very sad!
Give change a hug.
Post a Comment